Friday, November 04, 2011

The Star of India is the oldest active sailing ship in the World and it was launched from Ramsey Shipyard in November 1863.The ship is now in San Diego, California and on 12th and 13th November it will be sailing with an Amateur Radio station on board using the callsign NS6OI.The radio station will operate from 16:00z to 23:00z as follows:SSB 14.275mhz and 28.350mhzCW (every 2 hours) 14.035mhz and 28.025mhz

NS6OI QSL cards will be sent to stations which provide their QSL card and a SASE.The mailing address for QSL cards is:Star of India Amateur Radio Club/NS6OI1492 Harbor DriveSan Diego, CA 92101The IOMARS are planning to set up a special event station from Ramsey Coast Guard Station.

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Success in Europe

During the meeting of the CEPT WRC-12 Conference Preparatory Group held in Bucharest between November 1st-4th 2011 an European Common Proposal was agreed.

This ECP represents the block vote of 48 administrations and was passed without dissent. It proposes an allocation to the amateur service between 472-480 kHz on a secondary basis with a maximum power limit of 5W eirp.

This ECP will now be forwarded to the ITU as a contribution from CEPT.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who participated in the work of the working group that led to the adoption of this proposal. Also thanks are due to those European Member Societies who helped to influence their national administrations in this matter.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

The IOM Government relies on one radio communications system (TETRA) for all it's first responder services, this is a digital uhf system which is not always suitable for the job in hand. Backup to this system depends on mobile phones, again unsuited to many emergency communication needs!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Keep an eye on their website for the latest news:"www.t32c.com/"Bob MD0CCE will be on this trip and he advises that the group will be on the lookout for UK callsigns GDs, MDs, 2D, will be well received.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

A few months ago the Irish Radio Transmitters Society announced that, after some two years of negotiations, Irish regulator ComReg had agreed that EI licensees would be allowed to run high power in specified contests. Everything then went quiet for a couple of months, but ComReg has now published a document on their web site implementing the change. Consequently, suitably equipped Irish contesters are now able to run 1500 watts in major HF contests and 1000 watts in VHF/UHF contests. The list of permitted events is similar to the one in which UK stations may use short contest callsigns, although more contests could be added to the list in due course. Interestingly, the increased power limit applies to 4m and the whole of the 160m band, but, curiously, not the 10m band.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

GB2RS NEWSSunday 5th June 2011The news headlines:• South Coast Olympic comms tests on 70cm this week • New ARISS contact record • Luso Tower soldAs previously announced, the RSGB has been approached by Ofcom to determine sections of the 70cm band that could be released for a limited period around the Olympic Games. The RSGB has has now received an update that the first communications tests for the Olympics affecting 70cm will take place in the Weymouth and Portland area between Friday 3 June and Wednesday 8 June. These will take the form of spot frequency telemetry transmissions in the range 431 to 432MHz plus some more limited activity around 436MHz. All amateurs are requested to respect these tests and not interfere with them. We understand that OFCOM have advised the Olympics organising committee that this spectrum should not be used for this purpose during the actual Games, although further tests may take place later this year.

After spending 157 days aboard the International Space Station, ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA answered questions of students from 45 different schools, setting a new ARISS record for a single astronaut. Expedition 26/27 established a new ARISS record, working 77 schools in 68 radio contacts during the mission.

The RSGB is pleased to report a great deal of interest in the Luso tower described in this month’s RadCom. Several members have expressed an interest in the 36m tower and we can report that it has been sold at the price originally paid for it.

The International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring System Region 1 newsletter is now available online on the IARUMS website, www.iarums-r1.org. You can see detailed reports from the national coordinators within Region 1.

The RSGB CW National Field Day finishes at 1500UTC today, 5 June, and stations will be looking to collect as many points as possible. QSOs on 160 and 10m count as double points and so expect the 10m band to be particularly popular. Results will appear in due course on the RSGB Contest Committee website.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Our 2mtr repeater on Snaefell is now active once again... on a temporary basis for now, but at least "GB3GD" is just about workable. It has been given a temporary home on the west leg at a height of 6m, much lower than planned. Myles Ellis completed the install this morning and hopefully when the weather (wind) is acceptable they will complete full installation. Dave GD4HOZ will be testing the PC and logic control in the next few weeks to make sure all is well on top.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

The special event callsign GB4MNH will once again be active on the 25th and 26th of June from the Old Grammar School in Castletown.This is a IOMARS event to participate in "International Museums Weekend 2011" http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw/

To make this a successful event for the Society we need support from our local Amateur community. Please put the dates in your diary and turn up to help with this event.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

RSGB General Manager Peter Kirby, RSGB General Manager, has left the Society’s employment after the discovery of financial irregularities on his part.For the time being, RSGB Director Don Beattie, G3BJ, will act as General Manager.At this difficult time for the Society can I ask that everyone supports Don in his role.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

following information received from Ken Yamamoto JA1CJP of JARL these frequencies are known to be in use for the response to the Japanese earthquake. 7043 kHz SSB controled by JR3QHQ the Osaka branch manager of JARL He is gathering incident information on radio and forwarding this information onto the internet. 7075 kHz SSB is operated by JL3YSP in Wakayama occasionally. 7030 kHz which is the JARL emergency communication frequency in their bandplan is in use by JA7RL (JARL regional HQ station). The last frequency is particularly QRP relevant. There are obviously propagation factors which would limit their range but would all amateurs please make every effort to avoid interfering with emergency communications on these frequencies. Thanks & 73, Greg, G0DUB IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Following the excellent presentation last night (8th March) by GD0HOZ (Dave) on the topic of the Isle of Man 70cm repeater network, we were asked to put on the Blog internet links for the Allstar system.

http://stats.allstarlink.org/ will give you a view of all the live nodes with their node numbers; this link will also allow you access to a live graphic presentation of node activity.

https://allstarlink.org/ allows licenced amateurs to login into Allstar and activate the web based terminal so that you can link to the system on line at any time.

Monday, March 07, 2011

News and update regarding the Snaefell repeaters going back to full power.

Since my last missive there has not been a great deal to report regarding the site – bad weather has really hampered any progress to the amateur repeaters by engineers, and really only emergency repairs and maintenance have been carried out on essential emergency service’s equipment.

Snaefell is a very hostile place in winter, and especially so after the winter we have just had, and no one wishes the safety of engineers to be jeopardised.However, I have kept a regular communications channel open with the site owners being the Isle of Man government, and I am assured now that our work is “priority one” with them. At present the government are undergoing mast checks on all sites around the island, and I am assured that when this is completed we will be given priority.

I am aware that the work has taken longer than usual to get to this state but we are being subsidised to the value of approximately 8,000.00 pounds sterling by the government to have the facility on Snaefell, so would beg your patients for a little while longer.